European food

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Tredwell’s is the new restaurant by Marcus Wareing. In comparison to his flagship 2 Michelin star restaurant Marcus (recently renamed from Marcus Waring to Marcus), Tredwell’s does not aim to get a Michelin star and aims to serve people cheaper Marcus Waring influenced food in Covent Garden. I had read a lot of reviews of this restaurant, most of them negative. I generally thought this was because people wanted to be mean to Marcus Waring like people can to do with famous chefs, but when I went there, the restaurant had so many problems, I could see where the negative reviews were coming from.

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La Fromagerie is a cheese, vegetable, dry food and much more shop in Marylebone that also has a very nice café within the premises. I live around Maryebone and I have been extremely impressed with La Fromagerie produce for years. La Fromagerie has two locations one, in Highbury and one in Marylebone (I have not been to the Highbury store) and the first shop (in Highbury) opened in 1992, and 10 years later the Marylebone branch opened.

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Hardy’s Brasserie is an “old school” sort of brasserie in Marylebone. It was established in 1984 by Nick de Bastarrechea, and is hidden from the main streets and if you don’t know where it is, you probably won’t walk past it. I have been living around Marylebone for many years now, and had never noticed it, and the only reason why I went there is because I read about it in a newspaper.

We came here for breakfast, but you can also enjoy British and European food at lunch and dinner at Hardy’s Brasserie either in their casual brasserie (where we had brunch) or in their white linen restaurant. They also have some tables outside, and as Hardy’s Brasserie is located on a quiet street, you can sit outside, enjoy a glass of wine and not have too many passers-by staring at your drink/ food.

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I was meeting my friends in Riga for lunch and Olga and Arturs suggested we meet in Kasha/ Gourmet, which is one of their favourite cafes in Riga. Kasha is located on the corner of Brivibas and Stabu streets, and the word Kasha means porridge in Russian. From the outside the place does not look like much and also the inside is quite casual (apart from the great children’s corner which has a lot of interesting things for children) but the menu is very creative.

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On “urbanspoon” restaurant website Smokehouse is one of the 10 most talked about restaurants in London and has been in this top 10 for a while. I was naturally very keen to go and see what the fuss was about, also because I have been to Neil Rankin’s (the main chef at Smokehouse) restaurants before, he used to be at Pitt Cue Co, which I love, and John Salt (another restaurant in Islington). Neil has a particular cooking style, he loves to burn and smoke things and uses fire a lot in his cooking, which I personally love a lot.

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Fischer’s is now one of my favourite Marylebone restaurants. It recently opened on the premises that an Italian restaurant Cotidie used to occupy before it closed down. Fischer’s is a sister restaurant to Wolseley, The Delaunay and Brasserie Zedel and the style and interior is done in the same last century central European style. Just like the Delaunay, Fischer’s focuses on Austrian food, but in contrast to the Delaunay it is a much smaller restaurant which makes it more intimate.

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The Quince tree is a pub, restaurant, café and deli in Stonor - a pretty village in the heart of the Chilterns, close to Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. They also have a restaurant in London, Warwick Avenue called “The Quince Tree at Clifton Nurseries” which is where I went for brunch with some friends on a Saturday morning. The place is beautiful and oozes calm and Clifton Nurseries is London's oldest garden centre. There is a garden and a flower shop and everything is so nice and green around you and feels surreal, like you are not in London, and so peaceful. Just a wonderful place to be in.

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Tartufo is a modern European restaurant with an Italian bias by Sloane Square, in Cadogan Gardens. I decided to go there as I saw their stand in the Taste of London festival in Regents Park and even though I did not try their food it looked really appetising, so I booked a table there for dinner on a Wednesday evening. I was also very surprised I had not heard about it before, but that is because this place is only a year old. My friend Rob also was telling me, before I went, that he really liked it.

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City Social is the new restaurant by Jason Atherton (also behind the Michelin star Pollen Street Social, Little Social and Social Eating House and other restaurants in Asia) and is located in Tower 42, one of the tallest buildings in the city of London. The restaurant however is not located on one of the top floors, but is on level 24 (and you get there by taking a different elevator to the main one, a mistake which I made) but nevertheless the panoramic view of London (and mainly of east London) is wonderful.

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Shangri La hotel in the Shard has finally opened and with it 3 new destinations – Ting (restaurant), Lang (café) and Gong (bar). I have been to the other three restaurants in the Shard - Aqua Shard, Hutong and Oblix – and naturally wanted to visit Ting as well. Ting is located on the 35th floor, slightly higher than the other restaurants and overlooks the south side of London, so the view is slightly different.

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A Latvian girl who works in finance but has a deep passion for food! She lives to eat! :)

The website aims to share her thoughts on many of the meals she has had around the world and all the places she has visited, from michellin ranked and best restaurants in the world to casual, cool and quite cheap places.

Ratings

Maija assigns restaurants rating ranging from m (very bad) to MMMMM (very good) so the more "M"s a restaurants gets the better. Small "m"s mean half points. Note Maija gives a high rating based on the overall experience in the restaurant and also based on how delicious and enjoyable the meal was and not based on the quality or price of ingredients.